This presents an opportunity for both established cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Rackspace and new entrants such as telcos to offer IaaS to enterprises in the region.

While telcos have not typically been an obvious choice for enterprises considering IaaS in the region, they have introduced capabilities over the past 12 months that compete head-on with AWS and Rackspace — from entry-level “rent a virtual server” offerings to fully hosted and managed IaaS. As outlined in my “Telcos Are Lining Up Broad IaaS Offerings For Asia Pacific Enterprises” report, players in this space include AT&T, BT, NTT Communications, Orange Business Services (OBS), SingTel, Tata Communications, Telstra, and Verizon.

The Asia Pacific (AP) growth engine did not fire on all cylinders in 2012, leading Forrester to revise its IT purchases growth forecasts for the year. While Australia, South Korea, and several ASEAN tech markets are showing continued solid growth, in other markets like China, India, Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam, political leaders are struggling in the face of growing economic problems. My colleague Andy Bartels and I, with the help of Forrester’s AP analyst team, have recently published our revised IT purchase growth forecasts for 2013. Here are our key expectations by country:

2012’s slowdown in China will be short-lived. Despite a slowdown in 2012, China continues to attract intense vendor interest because of its size and potential for further growth. The expected government stimulus efforts in the country will offset factors such as weak demand from businesses and governments. The slowdown in 2012 (+9%) is therefore likely to be short-lived, with stronger growth resuming in 2013 (+10%).

India’s IT growth will remain slower than expected through 2014. 2012 (+7%) was a relatively lackluster year for the tech market in India. Worse than expected economic growth, combined with political gridlock on economic reforms, kept the tech market from reaching its full potential in 2012. While we expect the public sector to drive India’s IT spending growth, the impact will be limited through 2014 due to the parliamentary elections scheduled for that year.

Avoid the 2013 holiday rush – start your year-end software negotiations now! Have you just about recovered from several adversarial, transactional software procurement negotiations last month? Have you resolved to avoid a similar situation next year? Then Forrester’s Strategic Software Sourcing Playbook can help you.

Apparently 38% of Americans made weight-related resolutions in 2012, and 67% of people with gym memberships never use them. So my advice is to shun anything you’ve seen in a TV infomercial (“we called it Lunacy because you’d have to be mad to buy it”) and instead make your New Year's resolution to be more strategic and proactive in your software buying in 2013. Our Playbook, launched today, explains how to do that.

Reactive, adversarial software buying is ineffective in the new business technology (BT) world of self-provisioning, cloud deployment, and mobile access. IT sourcing professionals' colleagues bypass them in the sourcing process, while powerful technology vendors expect more revenue from them than they can afford to provide. Software sourcing professionals rarely have alternative suppliers that they can use as negotiation leverage, so you need something more than your natural charm and belligerence if you are to be effective. Forrester's solution is a strategic approach that aligns the commercial model for each supplier with its place in the enterprise's software sourcing strategy.

While not the top priority, more than a quarter of respondents to Forrester’s Forrsights Services Survey, Q2 2012, stated they were looking to implement or expand their use of offshore resources. Motivation for new offshore geographies is driven by a range of factors, from seeking new sources of talent to risk mitigation, cost savings, innovation, and local market knowledge and access.

My recently published report analyzes the attractiveness of the three largest economies in Latin America as outsourcing locations: Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. Latin America presents an attractive location, particularly for US and Canadian companies. However there is wide variation in the suitability between different countries. Some of the high-level findings of the research include:

Brazil has clear strengths with its size, scale, wealth of IT skills, and array of local service providers such as BRQ, Ci&T, and Stefanini. Most service providers are focused on the domestic market, however, and don’t have the same export focus as providers in other countries. In addition, overly complex legislative and bureaucratic hurdles, as well as, to some extent, language issues, continue to prevent it from reaching its potential. Ci&T however is one exception, providing a model for Agile development and entrepreneurship.

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HCL is the fifth-largest India-centric IT service provider in terms of revenue (after TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, and Wipro). While it only derived about 15% of its global fiscal 2012 revenues from markets outside of Europe and the US — slightly lower than the four larger Indian firms — HCL has built a strong base in Asia and now boasts more than 300 customers served by more than 8,000 employees. I recently attended HCL’s Asian analyst event in Sydney; below are some key reasons why I believe that you should consider HCL on your shortlist of systems integrators (SIs) and outsourcing providers:

Flexibility. When I asked some of HCL’s Australian, ASEAN, and Indian clients what characterizes HCL’s approach to managing client relationships and delivering projects, most mentioned “flexibility” and “HCL is easy to work with,” particularly during the transition phase in outsourcing contracts.

Co-innovation focus. HCL’s Asia growth strategy is both focused (on a limited number of vertical and horizontals) and pragmatic. Starting small with staff augmentation deals, the company invests in relationships to develop its presence and its expertise with its clients’ challenges — 2% of the revenue generated from clients is reinvested in the engagement as an innovation budget.

Local commitments. HCL has increased its regional presence via local management and delivery capabilities and local partners, including universities like Singapore Management University; IT companies like Lippo Group in Indonesia; and government, such as its work on the Mobility Lab initiative for EDB in Singapore.

We expect more AP organizations to embrace outsourcing services in 2013 to help them leapfrog the traditional IT skills, process, and technology learning curves necessary to support their business objectives. Our recent Forrsights Budget & Priorities survey in AP shows a high interest for outsourcing services in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan (see figure below). As AP companies try to manage rapidly rising complexity in both their business strategies and their application and infrastructure environments, they are facing a growing disconnect between business expectations and internal IT capabilities. Senior decision-makers have begun taking a fresh look at outsourcing as a way to bridge this gap.

I needed to order a tool from Amazon.com recently, and I was greeted with a “New Year, New You” panel linking me to whole host of exercise equipment targeted to my lifestyle. Same old New Year’s resolution song-n-dance, right? Well, the idea of self-improvement in 2013 got me thinking: We keep telling the SVM world that they need to stay relevant in a Business Technology world, so we’re now showcasing specific self-improvement tools to help you feel empowered stepping into 2013. In our recent “SVM Activities, Roles, And Skills Are Evolving” report, we have outlined the root rationale for SVM’s evolution and our prescription on how to move forward:

Roles are becoming more complex. As technology spending habits change, and spending ripples outward from IT to the business, classic SVM roles (e.g., sourcing; contracts; vendor management) are broadening and deepening to include skills related to strategy, governance, and business value (see top column labels).

These roles require new skill sets and certifications. In order to fill out these new roles, SVM managers should encourage staff to grow their skill set with training and certifications in emerging categories including innovation, diversity, eco-friendly/green, globalization, and strategy (see left-hand row labels). There are a host of organizations and authoring bodies that can help you demonstrate credibility in SVM emerging impact areas.